Louis Delmas says his knee is “88 to 90 percent”

Posted by Josh Alper on June 26, 2013, 6:44 PM EDT

AP

When last we heard from Lions safety Louis Delmas, he was asking reporters to leave him alone when they were asking him questions about the status of the knee injury that has made him a part-time player over the last two seasons.

At the time, coach Jim Schwartz offered no specific timeline for Delmas’ return to the field and that held about the same during Delmas’ interview with ESPN 96.1 on Wednesday. Delmas said that he plans to use training camp to work himself into being 100 percent for the regular season, but he isn’t there yet and included a note of uncertainty about how his plans may play out.

“I’m feeling great. I’m not all the way back 100 percent yet, but I can go around the range of 88 to 90 percent right now,” Delmas said, via MLive.com. “I still got a long road ahead of me. I plan on going through camp, trying to build my knee up as much as possible so I can go into the season 100 percent.”

The Lions’ decision to sign Chris Hope this week was the latest sign that the team isn’t putting too many eggs in the Delmas basket after two years racked by injuries that have kept Delmas from participating in practice with his teammates all offseason. Delmas saw that he saw a team with potential to overcome adversity during OTAs, but the jury will remain out a while longer about whether the safety’s knee will allow him to do the same.